When it comes to baking, I am one to try pretty much anything at least once. That is usually the case, with the exception to laminated doughs. As much as I love the flaky and buttery layers of goodness that can be found in croissants, danishes, and other like treats, there is something about the process that has always kept me from trying. I think it is mostly hearing stories about how it not only requires perfect technique, but also a lot of time. If you ever wonder why the day of a commercial baker starts at 3 am: breads and pastries.
Given I have been on somewhat of a sabbatical in the past months, I have no excuse for time. That said, while I have tinkered with my macaron recipe making enough macarons to fully shingle my house, canning enough jam to fill a swimming pool, and decorating cookies until my fingers cramp, I still avoided laminated dough. Why? I have the time. Was I just scared? Maybe, but I have failed many macaron attempts, yet that never stopped me. It was time to stop with the excuses and give it a try. Once I made the commitment, I decided my first experiment would be a Kouign Amann, the lovely buttery pastry from Brittany. While I am pretty good about eating healthy, these layers of caramelized goodness are my weakness and something I wanted to conquer. I thought to myself "All it really is is a bunch of layers of butter and dough rolled together with some sugar tossed in; it can't be that hard!" I found out, shortly after from my friend, who taught me how to make Palmiers, that Kougin Amann is black belt level baking. Oh... Anyhow, my mind was set, and, once I make an intention, I am pretty stubborn. Off to research I went. I consulted every cookbook I owned, every trusty food blogger, every site the first 7 pages of a Google search took me, and my all time favorite, Martha Stewart, who covered this on "Martha Bakes", for which I have every episode on my Tivo. For anyone interested, it is Season 6, Episode 10, "Layered Yeast Dough". Everyone seemed to use a different recipe, different butter ratios, different butter block techniques, varied rest times... It was overwhelming, but I thought I had enough knowledge to successfully get me through a batch by using a non-Martha recipe and the top techniques from a variety of sources I researched. It was game time.
Game one results: Kouign Amann: 1, Nicole: -3
What in the Hell happened here? Having started the process at 10 am, I was pretty miserable by 6 pm, when this was the result. Miserable, but also so humored. The results were so terrible that it was impossible not to laugh at them and myself. The dough was under-proofed, the exterior baked much faster than the interior, and the burnt sugar smoked up the house to the point where my daughter taped her nostrils shut to avoid the smell. The insides amounted to a soggy, dense muffin. I think the data overload from my research had me applying a whole range of techniques that were not meant to be combined. Of course my friend was with me the entire time via text, and feeling a bit like GBBO's Paul and Mary, we theorized what I may have done wrong, as I was singing "Kouign of Pain" to the tune of Sting's "King of Pain" playing in my head. Then my husband had an idea: Why don't you just try one recipe and method end-to-end rather than mashing up different ones. Hey, he is an engineer, therefore a logical one. What he didn't expect, is that I would try his approach the very next day. Okay, he has been married to me for a long time, so he may have expected that. Hoped for it, no; expected it, likely.
I excitedly woke up the next morning, before my alarm was scheduled, to try it all over again, using Queen Martha's Kouign Amann recipe. I did have her video instruction on my Tivo, after all. Eager to prove to myself I am not a hack baker, I had a renewed confidence that I was going to get it right this time around. With morning cartoons playing in the background (yes, the kid wakes up well before I do), I gathered the ingredients:
1 3/4 c warm water
1 tbsp active yeast (not quick rising)
2 tbsp melted butter
1.5 tsp good quality sea salt
5 c flour
1 pound of unsalted European butter (you want the high fat content, which has less water than ordinary butter)
Because she is Martha and is so extra, she, of course, has fresh yeast. On the other hand, I am just Nicole, and only have the dried yeast that is easily accessible at the grocery story, so that had to do. I simply left my dried yeast to bloom in 115 degree F water for around 10 minutes. Then I added in the salt, flour, and melted butter, and mixed using my dough hook for about two minutes--around the time that the dough formed a mass around the dough hook and the inner walls of the mixer bowl was pretty clean. I then formed my dough into a neat ball, tossed it in a glass bowl, and covered it. I had just made my daughter's hot lunch for the day, so the stove was still warm. I placed the bowl right next to the burner I used, as yeast likes a little bit of heat. Then my morning proceeded like any other weekday: coaxing my daughter into getting dressed, reminding to brush her teeth, putting on her sunscreen, pleading that she wear a jacket, and rushing her off to school. When I returned an hour later, the dough doubled in size and was pressed up against the cling wrap I put on top of the bowl. My last batch didn't look like this, so I am feeling encouraged. I punched the dough down, shaped it a little to look like a square, of sorts, placed it on a baking sheet, lightly covered it, then moved to the refrigerator for about 2.5 hours for another proving. She recommends a minimum of two hours, but I have read that you can let this stage rest as long as overnight. Supposedly the longer you let it sit around, the more relaxed the glutens get, which makes it more workable when you start rolling. Be sure to cover the dough lightly, as it is going to puff up pretty significantly as it rests. Covering it simply ensures the dough doesn't get hard on the exterior.
As I waited for the second proofing, I created my butter block. I have read so many ways to make the block, from beating the living Hell out of cold butter, to mixing the butter with flour and/or sugar to make a paste to shape or spread on the freshly rolled dough before the first folds. My first fail was a method that required tossing the butter in flour and rolling to shape. I really liked Martha's technique: fold an 8 inch square in the middle of a large parchment sheet, and use an offset spatula to spread an even layer of softened butter. Once I spread out an even layer, I folded the outer edges of the paper to form a little packet around the butter and moved it to the refrigerator to chill.
Now it was time to combine the cold butter and dough. I was nervous about this part, as this is really when all Hell broke loose on my first attempt, or at least the first major stop on the road to Shamesville. For some reason I was feeling pretty confident going into this, knowing I had Martha in my corner and on my TV to walk me through this process. I rolled the dough into a 12 inch square and placed the butter block into the center, but as an offset diamond shape, where I could fold the corners of the dough over it to create another square with no overlapping. I pressed the edges of the dough together, flipped it over and beat out my aggressions on the dough to loosen up the butter block for rolling.
So far, so good. Now it was time to do the first folds. I rolled out the dough to an 8"x24" rectangle and applied my first folds, while Martha quizzes three young ladies from the baking program at Johnson & Wales University. I can see the panic and dread in the one girl's eye as Martha asks her how many layers she has created at this point. Fortunately for her, she was spared the wrath of Martha, as she answered correctly. Inside I was slightly sad, as I wanted to witness a Martha-styled schooling.
Next, I turned this little packet around 90 degrees clockwise, rolled it to an 8"x24" rectangle, and did another fold of the bottom and top thirds before placing it lightly covered on a baking sheet into the refrigerator for 20 minutes. During the idle time, I found myself cleaning up the kitchen, as I hate working in a messy kitchen.
The one thing that drives me nutty about French pastries is that they don't keep for long. This recipe yields about 18 Kouign Amann, but, considering I don't eat carbs, that means my husband, daughter, and a few neighbors are then on the hook to eat 18 pastries in about a day. Since that is not happening, I cut my chilled packet in half, rolled it into a 8"x12" rectangle, folded, repeated the process, and wrapped for the freezer--double wrapped in plastic and foil--for future use.
Using the other half, I continued by dusting the counter with a generous amount of granulated sugar and topping the remaining dough with more sugar, what Martha calls "the fun part" because she feels everything up until now has been the "work part". I guess the addition of sugar makes it less like work to her, as everything else is pretty much the same as the prior steps. Oh, Martha... As I roll my dough into another 8"x12" rectangle, Martha tells me in the best French accent I have ever heard from someone from Jersey City that this dough is a mix between a Croissant, which has yeast, and a Palmier or Pate Feuilletée, which has no yeast. Oooh la la. I then folded into thirds again; added more sugar to the counter and dough; repeated the process; and placed in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Note that this last rest is pretty critical. If you let it rest in the refrigerator too little, the butter will get too warm and impact the layers you worked so hard to achieve. If you leave it in the refrigerator too long, the sugar will begin dissolving, or start "Crying, 'make me in into Kougin Amann, please'" as Martha playfully jokes to the eager and starstruck Johnson & Wales students. This will also impact the end product, and not in a good way, so it is best to minimize this. I kept mine in for 20 minutes, but think 15 would have been better, as the sugar did dissolve a little, making the dough slightly wet in spots. As the dough was in its final chill, I used the idle time to grease my muffin tins. Martha uses 4 inch French tart rings, but I only have two of those. A muffin tin will do. To avoid sticking, I cut little parchment circles to place on the bottoms.
Now that my dough was finally ready--remember, this process started at 6:30am, and it is about noon at this point--I rolled it into a 12 inch square and used my pizza wheel to cut the dough into 4 inch squares, shaped, placed into the prepared muffin tins, and lightly covered with plastic for about 30 minutes before baking in a 425 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes. I baked mine for 30, removed from the muffin tin immediately, and placed a few, bottom sides up, on wire baking rack placed inside my baking sheet and back into the oven for a few minutes to ensure the bottoms crisped up nicely. I let all of them cool on a wire baking tray while feeling a bit pleased with myself that the results were not a repeat of the previous attempt. Not a single one of these made it to the compost bin, as opposed to all 18 the prior day.
Once the excitement and relief faded, it was time to critique. While Martha recommends a method where you fold the corners into the center, I wanted to showcase all those layers I worked too hard to achieve. In hindsight, I would have done it her way--yes, Martha is always right--as my corners tended to over bake a little. Also against Martha's directions, I also sprinkled a little more sugar on the tops to ensure extra caramelization, which is something I will do again. So maybe she isn't always right. Okay, maybe we are just both right on this one. Who am I kidding? Martha is always right. I also think I need to either invest in larger muffin tins or invest in more French rings, since some puffed up and had muffin tops. All-in-all though, Martha again proves that she is the Queen of Everything, by making something as intimidating as Kouign Amann accessible to mere plebes like I. All hail the Kouign.